How To Marie Kondo Your Finances

If you haven’t read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up or seen the hit Netflix series that’s inspiring everyone to ditch their clutter, you may have no idea who Marie Kondo is.

Kondo is a professional organiser (life goals!) whose most famous for her ‘sparking joy’ method of cleaning up.

Essentially, you grab all your clutter and decide whether it brings you happiness. If it doesn’t, throw it away (or donate it, because ya know, the environment).

Just like owning too many clothes or books, your financial health can cause incredible stress and anxiety. Therefore, below are my tips to give your finances a spring clean and get your money in order.

Sort out your credit score

With so many free credit score checkers on the market, there’s no longer a reason to bury your head in the sand.

Set up an account with ClearScore or Noddle to view your credit score. Look at the negatives on your report and work on turning them into positives.

It could be simple things like:

Registering to vote

Staying within under 50% of your credit card limit

Not applying for too much credit

It may be more difficult:

Getting rid of debt

Paying overdue fees

Removing a CCJ

Whatever you need to do to turn your financial frown upside down, it’s better to tackle it head on. It may seem like an uphill battle, but slowly you’ll start seeing improvements.

Create a solid budget

If your finances are getting away from you, it’s probably a good time to sit down and create a budget. The most straightforward way to do this is to open up an excel document (or Google Sheets) and create two sections:

Money in (income)

Money out (outgoings)

From there, organise your outgoings into categories (utilities, vehicle, entertainment, loans, etc) to help visualise where your money is being spent and where cuts can be made.

Remember, you should be saving at least 5% of your wages (where possible), so include it in your budget. From there, set yourself a weekly budget based on how much you can afford to spare per month.

Close old bank accounts

I still have two dormant bank accounts I want to close for well over a year, and I’m not proud of it. One of them is a Help To Buy ISA and I own a property, so I certainly don’t need it!

Luckily, it’s getting easier to close your old, abandoned accounts. Many banks offer the service online, so you don’t even need to visit a branch.

Go through your subs and decide what you honestly use and what you can say goodbye to. If you’re not quite ready to unsub completely, you can share the cost with a friend or a parent and reduce those financial overheads.

Consolidate your debt

If you’ve gotten yourself into financial trouble in the past, you may still be paying an insane amount of interest to several companies. It may be worth looking into getting a loan or interest-free credit card to pay off your debt and manage it in one payment.

While I’d never encourage someone to take loans out or rack up a credit card bill, it could save you paying more on interest than your existing loans.

Organise your documents

We’re all heading towards a paperless society, but until we’re 100% there, it’s time to sort out that sad little folder stuffed with bank statements from four years ago and bills for properties you no longer live in.

First, shred anything that you don’t need. This might be outdated documents or ones you have a digital record of.

Then, get yourself a paper organiser and divide the rest of your paperwork into categories (bills, vehicle, education, etc.) to make them easier to grab when you need them at a later date.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser, so please seek professional advice when making life-changing decisions about your money.